Why Billionaires Pick Up Trash

The odd habit that signals everything about a leader.

There's an odd habit shared by many successful business owners. Titans of industry, people who could buy the building they're standing in, can be spotted picking up garbage from the floor and throwing it in the trash.

Why?

Surely these men and women have more valuable ways to use their time. There's a janitorial team. There are assistants. There are a hundred people who could handle a gum wrapper on the ground.

And yet.

I've watched this play out for forty years at camp. A senior director, someone responsible for hundreds of staff and families, bends down mid-conversation to pick up a candy wrapper that isn't theirs. They don't announce it. They don't make a show of it. They just do it, almost unconsciously, and keep talking.

The first time I noticed this, I thought it was a quirk. Then I started paying attention. The best leaders I've ever worked with share this habit. The worst ones step right over the trash.

Two Reasons This Matters

The first reason is pride.

If you take tremendous pride in your work, anything that reflects negatively on that work will bother you. A gum wrapper on the ground isn't just litter. It's a small crack in something you're trying to build. People with this sense of ownership go the extra mile in every aspect of their work. They can't help it. Excellence isn't a goal for them. It's a reflex.

The second reason is more powerful: leading by example.

At camp, children are always watching. Every counselor is a role model, whether they signed up for that job or not. A counselor who takes pride in keeping camp clean will have campers who do the same. Not because they were told to. Because they saw it done.

This works in offices too. When people see their leader pick up trash, something shifts. They think: if the boss cares about this place enough to do that, maybe I should care too. The behavior spreads without a memo, without a policy, without a single word being spoken.

The Signal You're Sending

Here's the uncomfortable truth: your team already knows what you actually care about. They know by watching what you do, not by reading what you post on the wall.

If you step over the mess, you're signaling that the mess is someone else's problem. If you pick it up, you're signaling that this place belongs to all of us.

One of those signals builds a culture of ownership. The other builds a culture of "not my job."

I've seen camps where staff members walk past overflowing trash cans because technically, that's the maintenance team's responsibility. I've seen other camps where counselors compete to keep their areas spotless because they've watched their director do the same thing, summer after summer.

Same facilities. Same resources. Completely different cultures.

Finding Your Place

Here's what I've learned: if you find yourself not caring whether a place succeeds or fails, it's probably time to move on. When you've found the right place, you'll feel the kind of ownership those successful CEOs feel. Your work becomes part of your identity. You go the extra mile not because someone is watching, but because you can't imagine doing anything less.

One thing you could try this week: the next time you see something small that needs fixing, something clearly outside your job description, fix it anyway. Don't mention it. Don't ask for credit. Just do it.

Then watch what happens to the people around you.

The trash on the floor is never really about the trash. It's about the question every leader answers with their actions: Do I care enough about this place to make it better, even when no one is watching?

Your team already knows your answer.

About the Author

Matt Kaufman has spent 40 years in summer camp as a camper, counselor, and director, studying what makes people belong, grow, and thrive. He writes about intentional community, leadership, and the intersection of technology and human connection.

Connect with Matt:

• Instagram: @mattlovescamp

• LinkedIn: Matt Kaufman

• Website: ilove.camp

Books by Matt Kaufman:

• The Campfire Effect: How to Engineer Belonging in a Disconnected World (February 2026)

• The Summer Camp MBA: 50 Leadership Lessons from Camp to Career